iPad’s 10 Biggest, Baddest Games Reviewed

What is an iPad game? It's not an easy thing to define.

Since the release of Apple's era-defining tablet last year, game developers have chased it with ferocity, releasing more than 45,000 games so far. These apps run the gamut from casual time-wasters to truly hard-core epics.

With their big, beautiful graphics and the complex control possibilities afforded by the tablet's giant screen, iPad games possess the potential to suck away your time (what smartphones haven't already gobbled up, that is).

Here are Wired.com's reviews of 10 of the biggest, baddest iPad games out there — something for every gamer's taste.

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Dead Space

The iPad version of Dead Space is an entirely new entry in the acclaimed survival-horror franchise. As usual, you play the role of a lone engineer trapped on a deserted space station with no choice but to kill lots of scary monsters.

Dead Space HD nails the look and feel of the console games. Excellent sound design, which allows you to hear every little noise, helps sell the horror. Dark, moody environments brim with little details like flickering lights, although the level design becomes very repetitive as the game unfolds: The rooms feel copy-pasted to the point where I would find myself getting lost.

The game also suffers from a fetish for dropping you in rooms where doors lock and you're forced to fend off waves of monsters. This would be more tolerable if the doors didn't take forever to unlock.

Most iPad games that try to emulate console games end up goofing the controls, but Dead Space HD doesn't. You control your character by sliding a finger along his back; you aim your weapon by moving your finger on the right side of the screen.

It's a smooth implementation — I never found myself doing something I didn't want to, which happens a lot in iPad games.

100 Rogues

In this clever role-playing game, players pick one of three characters and adventure through a series of randomly generated dungeons with the goal of killing Satan.

100 Rogues is the most user-friendly roguelike game — a type of RPG where dungeons are randomized, death is often permanent and movement is turn-based — I've ever played. Roguelikes are known for their brutal difficulty and extremely high difficulty curve; often you need pre-existing knowledge about certain elements in order to succeed.

But 100 Rogues takes the roguelike formula and tweaks it into a game that doesn't require you to constantly check fan wikis. Tutorials are plentiful; controls are simple.

That doesn't mean the game's controls always work well. You move your character by sliding your finger in the direction you want him to go, but since the screen moves as well, you must constantly readjust your finger to keep him going. This gets really annoying after a while.

Still, the more you play 100 Rogues, the more you understand its secrets and nuances. You will die many times, but chances are high that you will make it further each time. This is how the game sucks you in.

Bit.Trip Beat HD

Rock Band meets Pong in this rhythm game. You control a paddle on the left side of the screen, as blocks timed to the beat of the game's background music come in from the right.

Bit.Trip Beat HD's gameplay, music and visuals all complement each other perfectly. Since the blocks come in far too fast to follow with your eyes, listening to the beat becomes necessary. Do well, and the graphics get more animated, the music bouncier and fuller. Do poorly, and the game's beat fades away and the graphics fade to black and white.

This means you're always encouraged to perform well: You don't want to be staring at a nondescript black-and-white screen, especially when levels drag on for almost 15 minutes. Checkpoints exist, but that doesn't stop the game from feeling exhausting at times.

Bit.Trip Beat wouldn't survive on any of its individual elements alone, but the perfect synergy between design, sound and graphics makes the game much more than the sum of its parts.

Angry Birds HD

In this hit puzzle game, players use a slingshot to fling birds into structures in an attempt to crush the green pigs within. Angry Birds is famous for its cute characters, charming visuals and immensely addictive gameplay.

What differentiates Angry Birds HD from similar games is its varied gameplay. Each type of bird possesses unique qualities. The blue bird, for example, can split into three different birds; the black bird can be used as a bomb to blow up structures.

The game's physics are pleasingly consistent. If you attempt the same strategy twice in a row, it will produce the exact same effect. So it's always your fault if you mess up.

Angry Birds HD lacks the important ability to play its levels out of order. This means there's no way to try another level when you're stuck on a particularly tricky one.

Still, the game does an excellent job of making you think you can succeed if you try just one more time. That's often not the case, but the game will suck away hours of your life anyway.

Canabalt

In Canabalt, you play as a little dude who automatically runs toward the right. All you do is jump across bottomless pits. It's like Super Mario Bros. if Mario ran on his own through a single level that never ended.

Your running speed increases as you run but you can slow down by running into garbage cans placed in your path. There is a trade-off: Running at high speeds is more fun, but going at a slower pace makes it easier to negotiate platforms.

This simple but addictive platformer doesn't offer much variety in terms of obstacles: There isn't much to keep you on your toes aside from more pits to jump across and occasionally a window you need to jump into. Still, since the game randomizes the order of platforms and obstacles with each new attempt, there's no emphasis on memorization. Skill is all that matters.

Canabalt is my most-played iPad game by far. Its simple, fun concept distills platforming down to its bare essence of running and jumping.

Puzzle Quest 2

This puzzle role-playing game combines the match-three gameplay of Bejeweled with RPG and adventure elements.

Puzzle Quest 2's combat system is enjoyable and addictive. During battles, you are presented with a board of colored gems and skulls. You match the skulls to deal damage to your opponent and match the gems to build up magic power, which gives you special abilities.

These battles are a perfect marriage of matching puzzle games and contemporary RPG elements. You can set up huge combos but you also need to deny your opponent the privilege of doing the same.

Unfortunately, performance problems plague Puzzle Quest 2. The game freezes for half a second each time you match gems during combat. Since this is all you do, the slowdown gets very annoying very quickly.

And while the puzzling might be awesome, the questing feels dull. You navigate by touching the entrance to various areas, and talk to people by touching them. The process moves at a snail's pace, with too much time spent in between the gem-matching fights.

Infinity Blade

Infinity Blade is like the boxing game Punch-Out!, only with swords and magic. Players go up against several nasty monsters in their quest to defeat the God King; after each death, you take on the role of your descendant, retaining equipment and levels.

The combat is enjoyable. You swing your sword by swiping your finger across the screen. Like Nintendo's boxing game, the idea is to stun enemies by blocking, dodging or parrying their attacks and then performing a series of counterattacks. As the game gets more difficult, enemies perform feint attacks, requiring you to pay close attention.

Infinity Blade also boasts the best graphics of any iPad game. Detailed character models, realistic lighting and an absolute minimum of jagged edges or blurry textures make the game look almost as good as a console game.

However, no matter how much the games dresses things up, the endless battles get repetitive after a while. You're performing the exact same moves throughout the game.

There's also no way to walk around and explore. You navigate through areas by panning the camera and touching a glowing dot indicating the entrance to another area. Then you watch a short cut-scene showing your character walking. Other than that, there's nothing to break up the constant fighting.

Cut the Rope HD

In this immensely adorable and addictive puzzle game, a piece of candy hangs, suspended by several ropes. The goal: Cut the ropes in such a way that the candy falls into the mouth of the monster on the bottom of the screen.

Cut the Rope HD's level design is brilliant. The game frequently introduces new play mechanics and can squeeze enough mileage out of a single idea to fill several levels without getting repetitive.

The difficulty curve is smooth. The game does a good job of showing you the ropes (pun very intended) while slowly ramping up the difficulty. I never felt like I was getting in over my head, but that's probably the game's chief weakness: For the most part, Cut the Rope HD is really easy, even if you attempt to get all the bonus stars in each level.

Cut the Rope is also straight-up adorable, with an expressive, cartoony art style. For example, as the candy gets close to the monster, he'll open his mouth and start salivating. When you fail a level, he'll get sad and begin crying.

World of Goo HD

Launched in 2008 for the Nintendo Wii and PC, World of Goo is an award-winning, physics-based puzzle game. Players stack blobs of goo on top of each other, with the goal of building a tower to each level's exit.

The game makes you keep track of many factors. In order to complete a level, you need to make it to the exit with a certain number of goo balls intact. You also have to be careful that your tower doesn't tip over with the weight of your goo balls.

To exacerbate things, the difficulty curve isn't very forgiving. The game quickly starts getting hard, so there isn't much time to get acquainted with the mechanics. A level-skip feature comes in handy, but a level-select option that let you play levels out of order — instead of forcing you to suffer the indignity of having the level cleared automatically for you — would be better.

Still, all the game's complexity makes for some brilliant puzzles. World of Goo is not about trial and error. You may not complete most of the levels on your first run, but the carefully polished physics and smart mechanics mean there's always a logical solution.

I played World of Goo previously on my PC, but the iPad version's controls are a lot more suited to the game. Stacking goo balls by dragging them with your finger is faster, not to mention more fun.

Battleheart

Battleheart's gameplay consists, more or less, of a series of battles with a menu screen in between. A role-playing game with real-time combat that focuses on strategy and precision, Battleheart's main draw is its strategic and hectic fights.

You direct your party members by simply drawing lines with your finger: Attack by drawing a line from your attacker to his target; heal by drawing a line from your cleric to her target. The controls take a lot of getting used to, however. They work well, but until you get the hang of never letting your fighters sit idle, you'll be dying constantly.

The upside is that the fast-response controls give the game an excuse to throw a ton of monsters at you, forcing you to focus on strategy. For example, you might want your beefy melee fighters to attack monsters up close while your weaker, magic-based fighters attack from far away.

The fighting stays fast-paced and engaging because you must constantly issue new orders.